MakerBot Launches MinFill Firmware Upgrade

TechCrunch reports on MakerBot’s latest firmware upgrade. Nicknamed ‘MinFill,’ this firmware upgrade focuses on “infill – the support structures inside a [3D printed] model that keep it from collapsing.”

MakerBot’s MinFill was “designed in-house for the company’s Print software. [It] runs an algorithm which determines the minimal amount of material required to create sufficient infill for a model, saving on material and print costs – both major sticking points in the technology’s adoption.”

As MakerBot’s VP of Engineering Dave Veisz explains, “you can imagine as you print a complex shape, you get a lot of interesting internal geometries that support the shape in the right places. The net effect is that [MakerBot MinFill is] going to reduce the amount of filament used and reduce the print time. So, you’re printing less to get your finished product.”

“The time and cost savings varies, naturally, from project to project, owing much to different sizes and shapes of objects, but Veisz says the savings to both average out around 30%, effectively cutting the amount of material required to print an object by nearly one-third. Really geometrically complex objects, on the other hand, can have savings of upwards of 80 to 90%.”

“MinFill, which is a simple setting the user checks before starting a print, changes the process of one from simple repeating lattice or crosshatch structures to unique designs customized to the specific print.”

Whether this MinFill technology puts MakerBot back on track after a rough few years remains to be seen…